Dump Day

SPRINGER

IF you will recall, I trapped the kitty above and named him Picasso because he was trapped on Parsells, on April 4th.  I then named him Springer, not sure why.  It was my intention to let him back the next day after neutering, but someone saw in him a love, and off he went to foster, and then someone saw a deeper love, and off he went to adoption.  Here he is today.  Such a happy story!  Thank you Natalie for loving Springer!

Rosie on Sunday afternoon

TACO!  Peek-a-boo!

Just to clarify, there are adoption fees for all cats adopted from me.  No worries there.  I do not break even most times, but that is the way it is.  Take for instance today.  Taco and Rosie still have sniffles after being treated with Amoxycillan for the past two weeks.  The others are fine, its just those two.  They will be brought to the clinic for consult, and possibly be switched to another antibiotic.  Ca Ching!  There's another .....?  God only knows what the charge will be for the office visit.  Then there will be the neuter spay.  On adult cats, I definitely lose as I only charge $60 most times, and that does not include the fee I am charged for the test for FIV/Felv.  How am I doing it?  I don't know.  This past month, my bill, including yesterday's neuter of TNR Christopher, was close to $600.  That included taking in five kittens because of sniffles for two of them.  I paid $500 of that bill yesterday and that pretty much wiped out the generous donations of a few of you from the past few months.

My friend Mary let me know she made a donation of $60 at the clinic yesterday, and while it covered Christopher's neuter, she mentioned that if everyone just did it maybe four times a year, I wouldn't bear the financial burden of this.  Its a Rochester problem.  It shouldn't be mine - and it shouldn't be yours either.  And if you have made a donation to the clinic, and I have not thanked you, they are not great at letting me know, so thank you and I am sorry for not thanking you sooner.

My mission in life right now, as I drive around in the dark out there every single morning, and see tons more cats that are NOT on my normal route darting in between houses, bushes, cars, my mission is to spay and neuter every single cat roaming the streets of Rochester.  Can I do it?  No, never.  Not alone I can't.  But together as a community, it could be done.  If EVERYONE just chipped in somehow. 

I wrote to a friend who took charge after finding cats at an abandoned drug house near her house - with the help of her boyfriend - in getting these cats spayed and neutered and fed.  I kiddingly said that the City should be handing out awards - like a ceremony - to people like me, like her, like Habitat for Cats, like GRASP, like Keller's Kats, like Kitten Korner, Rescued Treasures, like... I could go on and on.  WE all do a service, we are silent warriors in this city, taking care of those that need our help.  There should be a ceremony that the city puts on for us.  We should be RECOGNIZED!  If the city can't help me/us financially, at least acknowledge our presence.  It would be good to have some publicity to get the public thinking about what THEY can do in their OWN community!  GRRRRR...  I am on a rant, but its a GOOD rant!

We recently acquired someone in our office temporarily, and we got to talking about animals.  When I asked her if she liked cats, she said "no! they scare me." "they stare at you."  Its that kind of mentality that I deal with on a daily basis from people in the neighborhoods that I feed in that just don't understand. I asked her 'what about kittens' and she said she was good with that.  And THAT'S why we have so many strays, once they are no longer kittens, and are spraying because they are not fixed, they are booted out the door.  Now I am not saying anything bad about this girl, she's a sweetheart in nearly every way, but we have to change that mentality from early on.  We have to teach our children to love, and be respectful of all beings.   No one should fear a cat.

Other than that, Spencer is holding his own.  I have an appointment for him for tomorrow morning.  For some reason, his belly has gone down, but now he is skin and bone.  I have been giving him warm water through a syringe each  morning and night, and he did eat some tuna I mixed with warm water this morning, about a tablespoon or so.  I appreciate everyone's advice, but the truth of the matter is that he needs further testing, which is very expensive, and in the big picture of life, I have a lot of cats that need my help just getting off the street, I have several other cats of my own facing old age, or actually are IN their last years, and they all need my help.  So I do what I can do for my babies, and if they are suffering, I'm not shoving any pills down their throat, I'm not dragging the off to one vet or another to be poked and prodded when they are not feeling well.  As the vet said, we could do all sorts of tests - all expensive, but he is still a very sick little boy.  So bear with me while I figure this out the best I can for my boy Spencer.

Have a great day.